I have a question maybe also other people could tell me;
With a powered landing as shown on the latest movie, if the rocket would come from orbit.
Won't this stop the reentry problem in the earth's atmosphere ?
I think if scaled wants to go higher they are very limited.. but if I'm right. with Armadillo their concept, it seems they won't have a height limitation.. do they ? except from fuel storage of course..

From the little I understand, I don't believe a VTOL ability can be used to prevent re-entry heating. If I do understand this right, you have to use the thrust in the opposite direction to that of travel, therefore adjacent to the Earth's surface, to reduce speed to leave orbit. It is this action that leads to the descent into the atmosphere while still travelling at a fair old whack. I can only imagine you would need two off-set main engines and a shed load of fuel to carry out a controlled descent to sub-orbital flight, if indeed it is even possible. Dr Keith probably knows.

_________________It was like that when I found it. Honest.

Last edited by luke.r on Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I know this is a QA thread - I don't have any pressing questions - but I had to offer my congratulations to the Armadillo team on a great boosted hop! Also, thank you John for the frequent and regular public updates - they are highly appreciated.

I have a question maybe also other people could tell me;With a powered landing as shown on the latest movie, if the rocket would come from orbit.Won't this stop the reentry problem in the earth's atmosphere ?I think if scaled wants to go higher they are very limited.. but if I'm right. with Armadillo their concept, it seems they won't have a height limitation.. do they ? except from fuel storage of course

Actually JC is the one who should answer this ... but in the meantime I'll give it a whack ... I imagine they would have to deal with increased heat shielding like anyone else wanting to return from higher up, and if you are going to burn fuel to reduce descent speed ... well, that's a lot of extra fuel to lug up there in the first place. Besides, I thought Carmack wants to switch his engines entirely off during descent until landing preps.

Basically, what luke.r said already ... although I'm not sure if it's considered impossible to use thrusters to slow descent in order to offset heating, I think it's just accepted that for the mass of fuel required for it to work you can use heat shielding instead and save (a lot of?) weight.

Looks like the Japanese people working on the RVT project might be *very* impressed by this!

Your team is inspiring thousands of people, I'm sure. Burt's approach, while very elegant, still has somewhat of a big corporation aura around it, you guys are more the "kids in the shed" type, and i think a lot of youngsters are simply lapping it up.

Future engineers will quote your project as a mayor incentive for them entering college, I'm sure.

From the little I understand, I don't believe a VTOL ability can be used to prevent re-entry heating. If I do understand this right, you have to use the thrust in the opposite direction to that of travel, therefore adjacent to the Earth's surface, to reduce speed to leave orbit. It is this action that leads to the descent into the atmosphere while still travelling at a fair old whack. I can only imagine you would need two off-set main engines and a shed load of fuel to carry out a controlled descent to sub-orbital flight, if indeed it is even possible. Dr Keith probably knows.

Forward firing rocket motors are an effective way to reduce re-entry heating.

NASA has looked at the method for use during aerobraking maneuvers on interplanetary missions.

I have a question maybe also other people could tell me;With a powered landing as shown on the latest movie, if the rocket would come from orbit.Won't this stop the reentry problem in the earth's atmosphere ?I think if scaled wants to go higher they are very limited.. but if I'm right. with Armadillo their concept, it seems they won't have a height limitation.. do they ? except from fuel storage of course

Actually JC is the one who should answer this ... but in the meantime I'll give it a whack ... I imagine they would have to deal with increased heat shielding like anyone else wanting to return from higher up, and if you are going to burn fuel to reduce descent speed ... well, that's a lot of extra fuel to lug up there in the first place. Besides, I thought Carmack wants to switch his engines entirely off during descent until landing preps.

Basically, what luke.r said already ... although I'm not sure if it's considered impossible to use thrusters to slow descent in order to offset heating, I think it's just accepted that for the mass of fuel required for it to work you can use heat shielding instead and save (a lot of?) weight.

In making an x-prize attempt, do you intend to send up three people, or are you going to send one person and a payload of wieght that is equivalent to two additional people? Though I may be incorrect, I remember reading somewhere that a single pilot and a sufficient payload would satisfy the requirements for the x-prize. I haven't verified that fact, however.

Secondly, though I am notably inexperienced in phyisics theory, I thought I had read somewhere that certain factors in a physical scenario change with scale. If this is true, do you think you will have to do significant work on the software that controls the landing when you test it on the full size vehicle?

Thank you for your time and effort in regards to publishing reports and making media available for download. Watching private space travel take its first steps is a very profound and invigorating experience.

In making an x-prize attempt, do you intend to send up three people, or are you going to send one person and a payload of wieght that is equivalent to two additional people? Though I may be incorrect, I remember reading somewhere that a single pilot and a sufficient payload would satisfy the requirements for the x-prize. I haven't verified that fact, however.

you are correct. in fact, i'm pretty sure all the teams only plan on having one person on the flights, due to the fact that the ship will not be fully tested when they occur.